There have been numerous attempts in the prior art to provide a papermaking fabric capable of producing softer more even paper products while at the same time providing extended fabric life. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,157,276 and 4,239,065 are directed to paper forming fabrics which present a paper support surface in which the high points of both the warp and weft filaments lie in a single horizontal plane, i.e. a monoplane support surface. The patent to Trokhan goes further by providing sub-surface crossovers in the warp direction which produce cavities on the paper support surface. These cavities are surrounded by monoplanar high points of selected warp filaments and the weft filaments.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,195 to Kahn is directed to a synthetic paper forming fabric having long weft knuckles on the running surface for better wear and variable height support surface nucleus. The patent is intended to remove transverse markings and to have extended fabric stability and wear resistance.
It has been found that there is difficulty in maintaining uniform paper fiber orientation along and across the paper product when using paper product support surfaces as described above.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a paper forming fabric having a paper product support surface with deep interconnected pockets extending transversely along and across the support surface width.
It is further object to produce a paper forming fabric having a paper product support surface which produces good uniform fiber orientation.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a paper machine fabric capable of producing paper having an increased softness.
It is still a further object of the invention to produce a paper forming fabric having improved wear resistance on the running side.
It is still a further object of the invention to produce a paper forming fabric of improved stability.
It is still a further object to provide a paper forming fabric having superior paper product release properties.